# heads or tails

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/heads-or-tails
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

The practice of flipping a coin in the air, to choose between two alternatives based on which side lands face up.

## Examples

- Let's flip a coin for heads or tails to decide.
- You choose heads or tails to see who starts the game.
- We could not agree on which movie to watch, so we settled it with a quick game of heads or tails.
- Since both candidates had the same number of votes for the club president role, they used heads or tails to pick the winner.
- Faced with two equally unappealing options, he decided to leave his fate to chance by calling heads or tails on a spinning coin.

## Origin

Attested since at least 1833, the phrase appears on the second page of the newspaper Galignani’s Messenger. The text describes a scene of idle diversion, recording men amusing themselves by pitching quoits, drinking beer, smoking, and spoiling halfpence at heads or tails with gingerbread merchants. The term persists as the standard designation for the two sides of a coin, though the gingerbread merchants have long since vacated the premises.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.